An otaku-themed haiku contest entitled the “otaku senryu contest” has been striking a chord with an abundance of otaku due to how much some can embarrassingly relate to the results, with possibly the most accurate haiku naturally obtaining the top prize.

(I don’t know if I got this correct. Shuzo refers to Matsuoka Shuzo, a former ATP tennis player and internet celebrity due to the number of commercials he’s appeared in over the years (and thus memes that come from editing such commercials). I’m guessing the poem is trying to say you’ll know how the times have changed by watching Shuzo’s commercials over the years, which would be more accurate than trying to analyze the climate forecasts. Feel free to correct me on this one. )

7. Evangelion
This year, Angels would attack
Yet they never came

8. Marriage will come
Eventually, I thought
But it never did

9. Common knowledge that
Mother of an otaku
Is hard to swindle

(Literal translation. But the meaning escapes me. Is the poem inferring otakus live with their folks, hence conmen don’t usually get to swindle otakus because they have to go through their more vigilant moms first?)

10. Always hoping that
Someone would reach the same book
That I am getting

(Referring to the cliched anime boy-meets-girl in library/bookstore trope, i.e. never happens in real life, at least not to otakus)

He is precisely right. People who are arguing back don’t actually speak the language.

“hanaseru” is potential form of “hanasu”, meaning “can speak” and “hito ni hanaseru shumi” is “hobbies I can tell people (others)”. If I were to write it like the English translation, it would be along the lines of “hito ni hanasu no wa” (“no” nominalizing the action of talking) “shumi jya nai”. Of course that doesn’t fit the 5-7-5.

You can interpret, “I can’t talk to people about my hobbies” from the OP’s translation. Spelling it out shows us that you don’t understand the medium:

The great appeal of haiku poems seems to result mainly from two qualities: their dependence on the reader’s power of awareness, bringing him closer to simple, elemental truths; and their capacity to grow in meaning as they are read and reread.

The article’s translation is wrong though. The Japanese wording is that I have many hobbies, but not a single one about which I can talk to others. The implication being that all of the writer’s hobbies are frowned upon, so he hides them.

Are we talking about Novels or Poems? You can use google to check my sources (ISBN-10: 0804811105) . If you don’t feel it’s credible look anywhere on the internet, from Wikipedia to any book that talks of Haiku, and you will see that you are wrong. Haikus are poetry. Even children know ought to know that.